Once an isolated and dying township, an influx of academics, adventurers and thrill seekers have made Scalvoris Town their home. From scholars' tea shops to a new satellite campus for Viden Academy, this is an exciting place to visit or make your home!

65th Zi'da, 717She was sitting on the floor in the street as they walked by. What it was which made her pick them out, she either did not or did not tell. But, that trial, it was them she called. "Please, wait!" Joelle said, her voice gentle and tinkling like a fairy rather than the biqaj she seemed to be. On the ground, on the street, in the middle of Zi'da and she wore an outfit which seemed to be mostly rags. Yet, she bore no brands of slavery and so the young girl ~ for such she was, maybe in her teens but probably not quite ~ did not seem to be cold. Her copper hair was well brushed and she looked clean, none of which added up.

Yet, still, was.

Lots of people walked and escaped her notice completely. Yet, on this trial, she saw them and she called out. They heard and they answered, or they did not, but it was them she wanted, needed to speak to. Her eyes looked up from the ground where she sat, surrounded by fortune telling cards and flickering candles, and those who gazed on her saw nothing but solid colour in her eyes. No iris or pupil, all white. She was blind, it seemed, although she appeared to be looking directly at them.

"Please, wait," she called again and she smiled, then pointed to the individual she spoke to and then, to the cards on the floor in front of her. "There's a message for you. Will you talk with me awhile?"

Off Topic

Ok, so it's just a quick and quirky thread. And it's open to the first TWO players who post. You can post at different times of the day, because you will be interacting only with the fortune teller. There are things to buy, things to learn, things to lose. After two people have posted, that's it - and no placeholders, please.

It was only just mid-morning, but even though the trial was young Arlo's plans were to return to camp as soon as he'd visited the market and filled up his sack with the extra supplies he and Vega would need as the weather grew colder. Once the snow and ice started piling up on the ground, no one with any sense would want to be out and about, or worse slogging through the stuff just to bring home a block of cheese, a sackful of flour or a side of bacon. Better now than later, the young man had thought. It wasn't as if he'd have any trouble keeping those things that ordinarily would have spoiled in warmer weather. A covered pit in the ground and a layer of snow fallen over it was a fine way of keeping food through the winter.

What Arlo needed he could carry and he'd left Peg and her cart behind at camp. He had his hat pulled down over his ears, his collar and scarf pulled up and wrapped round the lower part of his face, nose to the ground, so he'd nearly walked past the strange and scantily dressed girl without even noticing her. It was only her call that brought him up short and caused him to look her way. At first glance it was the lack of winter clothing that struck him. Death came to everyone sooner or later, but out in this sort of cold, she looked like she was busy chasing after it. Except that it didn't seem to be bothering her.

Strange. Arlo frowned curiously, looked around in case it was someone else she was calling, and then frowned back. "I'm sorry. You talking to me?" But then it was those eyes that struck him. She ought to not see him at all but seemed to be looking right at him. And then there was the cards and the candles which struck him as the sort of tricks used by the sort of travelers that preyed for profit off the curiosity and superstition of others. He wasn't superstitious, but he'd admit to being the curious sort. Needed to be, to make any sort of storyteller. And all of her taken together, there might just be a story here.

"A message for me?" he asked when he wandered over, just a little bit closer. Arlo didn't believe it. He figured that she was probably just very good at what she was doing, blind or no. Didn't explain why she wasn't trembling in the cold though. He decided he was game, and could spare a bit or two before heading out for home. "Alright then, I'll bite," he said and smiled, shrugging a little. "You've got my attention." He was curious then to find out what she'd do with it.

He wasn't in any hurry. He had just finished his lunch and was on his way back to the Element Hall to get back to work. He still had a bunch of mounts to wash but he still had some time left. Those beasts would definitely not get cleaned on their own, that was for sure. Ronan was wearing his usual, somewhat repaired outfit, some stitches on the side and back to keep everything together. The Elements trainee pin on his shirt was easily visible to anyone who inspected him even with a passing glance.

He'd been trying to catch up on some missed trials due to being bedridden for the first twenty or so trials of the season. He couldn't do more trials per trial, of course, but if he focused on this for now he might be able to close out the season still. Despite his nonchalance toward his Elements job, his mind was occupied, wheels turning in the background as he tried to figure out some of the things he'd learned this season. Once he got this trainee ship done there were only two left, the Water and Land troops. If he got done with those he would finally be a proper member of the Elements and he could start doing some actual work. His time with the Flame troopers, however, had changed his mind.

Initially, Ronan's only interest had been towards the Land Troopers but now, his recent experiences had shown him that he could be of use to the Elements as more than a bruiser. It was a strange revelation, one that was part of the reason the wheels kept turning in the background. First he'd need to get through all this trainee stuff. It was difficult to get through now, all these mounts that he had to learn to ride and after that a whole bunch more trials learning how to work on a ship. Ronan shook his head and turned his focus elsewhere. The arena was doing well. Some more fighters had joined and more regular bouts were planned, not all of them featuring Ronan. He was present for most of them, mostly to observe and learn but he had been called forward to judge once already so his reputation was starting to set in.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a voice calling out. "Who? Me?" Ronan looked at the woman sitting on the floor, pointing at the cards in front of her. He approached her a bit, somewhat wary of her presence. Her eyes were milky white and completely empty, which he noticed quite easily as he got closer to her. She continued to speak and Ronan moved a little closer. "A message?" It wasn't a nice thing to do but then again, Ronan had never really received any training in those things. All he knew was how to punch and get punched. Ronan waved his hand at the woman, not too close to her face but close enough she should at least give him a strange look for doing what he did.

"So you're a blind lady and you have a message for me that you're going to read from the cards" He said, quite directly, and waited for his stomach to start protesting.

ArloShe chuckled when he said that he'd bite. "I hope not," her eyes gazed upon him and, even though there was nothing except solid white there somehow it was obvious that she was looking at him. "I don't think you'd bite. Come, then, let me tell you, you're in a rush." How she knew, or surmised, that was anyone's guess, but her hands moved and she picked up a deck of cards. "A card for you, you choose it."

She put the deck into his hands and, as she did he could feel that her hands were warm, not cold. The heat radiated through his gloves. "Shuffle them, then choose one." When he had, she took the deck back and gestured to him. "Look at it." While he did she laid the cards down in front of her, face up, so that he could see each one was different. A deck of all the same cards, after all, was a common trick among those who sought to dupe the unwary.

"The Fool," she said, though he hadn't shown her the card. "A young man, taking a step. The first one on a lifelong journey. If you look at him, he seems very unprepared, yet he knows that he has everything he needs. The protagonist, the traveller who seems to be on the edge of a cliff. Yet a smile on his face and his companion by his side, he is happy and knows that the step off the cliff is the one into the unknown." Her sightless eyes lifted to him. "If he is true to himself, to his journey, he will be all the cards, each in turn. But always, at heart, he remains the Fool and the strange creature at his side nips at him to remind him."

With a child-like smile, the girl who seemed maybe to be a teenager, but was probably not quite asked, "does that sound like you?" She seemed very interested in that answer. "If it does, then we should do another. Bones, dice or runes?"RonanHe waves his hand in front of her and Joelle didn't seem to notice, yet she turned her milk-white eyes to him and she looked at him. There was no doubting it, she looked at him. When he said that she was a blind lady and she had a message for him, Joelle laughed once again and she shook her head. "I didn't say that. I said there's a message for you. In these cards. I don't know it yet. But it's yours." There was no doubting that she found him funny, somehow.

"The way it works is that you come and talk with me. Pull a card from the deck and I tell you what it means. There's a message in there, but the message is to you, not me." Such was the way of things for her, she didn't have to understand the message, not at all. Often, she didn't. She shuffled the deck, her hands moving dexterously for someone couldn't see, and she pulled a card, which she handed to Ronan, face down.

As she handed him the card with one hand, with the other she let the deck slide to the floor, so that he could see that there were lots of different cards. "It's the hanged man," she said, though she hadn't looked at it, even if she could see. "He hangs, upside down, being taken and it looks like he is not in control, it seems like he is being punished."

She smiled at Ronan and shook her head. "He isn't. Look at his face, look at how calm he is. It's like he's asleep. He is suspended, waiting for the moment that he chooses to stop hanging there." Shrugging slightly, she gestured to the card. "That's what I think, anyhow. Don't you? Does that sound like you? Is it your message?" It might not be, of course, it wasn't always. But then, it might be too.

"If it is, then you should choose. Leaves, water or flame?"

Off Topic

So, thanks to Bumblebee for the inspiration for so doing. I randomly chose a tarot card for each of you. Pulled from a deck (only the major arcana, in fairness) - but I think it worked pretty well.

"Just an old saying," Arlo responded with a grin, a shrug when the girl repeated his quip, would he bite or not. All those physical, visual cues, logic implied she wouldn't see a one of them. That nature of her eyes implied she was blind, but she definitely didn't act like she was. "Just something my stepfather used to say," he added as he'd wandered over. "It's cold out," he added when she observed that he must have been in a rush. Strange she didn't seem to feel a bit of it. Even had he been carrying that strange wooden chicken leg on him which he ought to be, he wouldn't be going round half dressed and exposed.

In fact, when he crouched down on his heels and took the deck she handed him, a strange warmth from her hand crept up his arm in response. Not any ordinary girl, her. But Arlo shuffled the cards, drew one out at random, kept it to himself and handed the rest of them back. The fact that she seemed to see each of them as she laid them out for all to see...well it was either a very good trick that apparently she could see them too, or there was something more interesting at play. He opted to believe it for curiosity's sake. "The fool. That's right," Arlo confirmed when she told him what he held in his hand.

When she told him what it meant, what the choice implied about him, he had to admit that it was either a very lucky coincidence that he'd chosen that card. Or, what else could it be? When she asked, he smiled again and nodded. "I'd say you've got me pegged alright. That's me, or at least as close as a deck of cards could get." Maybe though, there was something magical at work here and she'd gathered some sort of insight into his nature before she'd ever called out to him. So, another round? Bones didn't quite suit his style, Arlo thought. Runes were interesting, but less familiar than dice. It was unusual for him to choose the more familiar. This time however was an exception. "Dice," he told her.

Before she could shake her head, before she even started laughing, his stomach tightened up and tensed up his throat and shoulders, holding back the gagging. He didn't know why he'd said it out loud. A blind woman could never read anything from a card. He swallowed loudly and composed himself, standing over the woman as she explained what exactly was going on here. So the cards held the message and not the woman? Ronan scratched the side of his beard, a little confused. "Sure, let's play." She hadn't even asked him for any money yet.

As she shuffled her deck, Ronan crouched down so that he wouldn't touch the cold stones. Zi'da didn't lend itself well to sitting outside in the streets. Her hands moved swiftly as she shuffled and then she pulled a card out, the image hidden towards the ground as he took it from her. He watched the deck slide to the ground, showing different images on each one of them. He wanted to get a better look at them, never having seen such a deck of cards, but she pulled his attention back to his own card as she named it. He turned it around and was surprised to find a man hanging by a thin string from a flying bird. A hanged man, indeed. Her words struck true, almost exactly right on the mark. Ronan looked up from his card to try and study the woman more, simply willing himself to perceive whatever power she had.

She only smiled and shook her head. As she mentioned his face, Ronan pulled the card closer to his face but it was too small to see the details on his face. He wasn't screaming but whether he was frozen with fear, sleeping or knocked out he couldn't tell. It was possible that he was calm in the drawing. "That sounds like it is a message for me, yes, so I'll pick the..." Leaves didn't really suit him. Water was nice, it kept him alive and clean but it sounded dull. "...flames next." He didn't really know what he was choosing for but out of the options that one stood out, clearly.

Arlo"Yes, it is," Joelle said when he commented that it was cold out. "You should think about wrapping up more, you know. Frostbite is bad news." She beamed a child like smile at him. Then, he picked his card and she told him what it meant. He seemed to be content with that and she nodded, pleased. "You keep the card. It's yours. It's you." From such a young face, her expression was one of a much older person. "There isn't another person who could have it." She sighed, slightly, then and turned her white eyes down to the deck she had spread out on the floor. "I sometimes think I'll never finish, you know." But her mood improved almost immediately. "But I'm glad I found you. Keep it, it will bring you luck and when you are faced with a decision, look at it and wonder what the Fool should do."

When he made his choice, Joelle looked at him and her young face frowned, just a little. "I would have thought different for you. But dice work. Here." Laying out a cloth on the ground, she took a jar and emptied the contents of it (which seemed to be earth) on to the cloth, covering it completely. "Draw a circle, in the earth, with your finger. Large enough for me to throw the dice in, but inside the cloth, please." Then, she reached back and took hold of a small wooden box. It was beautifully crafted, delicately carved and she lifted it, opened it and emptied six dice onto the cloth. The dice themselves were beautiful ~ intricately patterned and strange shapes.

What the dice said it was impossible to tell. They had no numbers on them, varying numbers of sides. Each side had a different symbol and, again, she seemed to see them. The dice landed and she looked down, then moved her hand over them fingers splayed but not touching. Her face was a mask of concentration, perhaps more than before. Then, she spoke. "I'm sorry for your loss," she said, her voice soft and quiet so that only Arlo could hear her, even if someone was trying to listen in. "And I'm happy that you're happy. So's she, whoever she is. There's happiness around you, that isn't yours."

She frowned more deeply and she looked down at the dice, then breathed in sharply. "There will be a man and a fox." Her voice was suddenly anxious, breathless. "Silver nel, there'll be a lot of silver nel. He won't seem it, but the dog is your friend and you have to find the cup and use it wisely. It's the key. You have to find it. You have to." Lifting her head to look at him, her voice at the last three words was urgent and almost shouting. But as soon as she'd said it, she looked at him with suddenly very normal biqaj eyes, awash with colours where they should be and he realised that she was smiling. "Oh, what happened?" Shrugging slightly she gestured somewhat helplessly. "Is there..is someone there?" And ironically, perhaps, she reached a hand out, feeling for where things were. Her eyes, suddenly so normal for her race, obviously could not see him as they moved, sightless.

"Would you help me?" now that he could see her eyes, she looked no more than 12. She was shivering with cold. "We're in the market? I can hear it. My Mama, she runs a stall here. Will you help me?"

"Please?"

Ronan"Yes, iI like to play!" Joelle said and she smiled at him. "You should think about playing more, it's good for you" She beamed a child like smile at him. Then, he picked his card and she told him what it meant. He seemed to be content with that and she nodded, pleased. "You keep the card. It's yours. It's you." She looked positively serene as she said that. "There isn't another person who could have it." She turned her white eyes down to the deck she had spread out on the floor and smiled. "I have so much to do! It's exciting." Her expression grew more serious as she gestured to the card itself."Keep it, it will bring you luck and when you are faced with a decision, consider whether you choose to stay as the hanged man or move on to whatever's next"

When he made his choice, Joelle looked at him and nodded. "Flame is perfect for you. Here." Laying out a cloth on the ground, she took a jar and emptied the contents of it (which seemed to be earth) on to the cloth, covering it completely. Then, she reached back and took hold of a small red candle. It was beautifully crafted, delicately carved on the outside and with a vague scent which Ronan almost recognised.

Almost

The candle was covered with strange symbols and markings, none of them clear in terms of what they meant but all very arcane-looking. She lit the candle from one of the many candles around her and she stared into it as it flickered there. Her face was a mask of concentration, much more than before. Then, she spoke. "I'm sorry for your loss," she said, her voice soft and quiet. Compassion positively oozed out of her. "It isn't what you think, you know. Not all how it appears. It isn't straightforward."

She frowned more deeply and she looked more intently at the flame, then breathed in sharply. "It's cold. Oh, it's so cold where you are. The blood won't stop but you need to stop it" Her voice was suddenly anxious, breathless. "I can see a bar, it's quiet but you're there. There's a woman, she's cut and she's bleeding and the blood won't stop" Lifting her head to look at him, her voice urgent and almost shouting."You have to save her. Make it stop, the bleeding. Make the bleeding stop. Please?" Then, as soon as she'd said it, she looked at him with suddenly very normal biqaj eyes, awash with colours where they should be and he realised that she was smiling. "Oh, where am I?" Shrugging slightly she gestured somewhat helplessly. "Is there..is someone there?" And ironically, perhaps, she reached a hand out, feeling for where things were. Her eyes, suddenly so normal for her race, obviously could not see him as they moved, sightless.

"Would you help me?" now that he could see her eyes, she looked no more than 12. She was shivering with cold. "We're near the docks? I can smell it. My Mama, she works in a warehouse here. Will you help me?"

"Please?"

Off Topic

To be clear - just in case you thought it. This is not the end As you were, gentlemen, post away.

If he'd been wrapped up any better, more completely than he was, Arlo would have been stumbling about blind, the last of him that wasn't covered was his eyes. Probably not the most socially correct thing to say to a woman who might, or might not be blind though. And he hadn't come to decide which it really was. He only knew that the fortune teller seemed to be a study in contradictions. "I'll keep it in mind," he promised himself, and when she opted not to take the card back, he thanked her and slipped it into his pocket.

The card was him? More or less, Arlo guessed. The way she'd explained it definitely suited him, though he'd have argued that Idalos was a pretty big place, and there were plenty of fools in it. "I like to do the unexpected," he argued, grinning a little when she seemed surprised by his choice. Dice. He drew the circle in the dirt, just liked she asked and while he'd expected ordinary dice, they weren't like those he'd seen before, countless times. Clearly she wasn't blind, he figured when she appeared to know what was on each one of them even without touching the dice themselves. "Thank you," he said when she offered her condolence, by now simply accepting that she seemed to know things that she shouldn't. Even about his personal life.

"A man, a fox and a cup?" he asked with a curious frown. Strange. None of it really made sense and any other time he'd have assumed she was just making it up off the cuff. He decided though that in this case, he'd keep it in mind. If nothing else ever came of it, at least it would make a good story. So would she. "Alright," he agreed, whether or not anything ever came of it. "If it comes to it, I will. I'll remember." He might have asked her to elaborate, and was about to when everything changed again. Everything about her. The look of her. The eyes were definitely biqaj but ironically now it didn't appear she could see a thing. She looked younger, more waif like, more like a child and frightened when she reached out.

What a strange trial this was turning into, Arlo thought with a frown. It was as if she'd been possessed before. He'd learned by now though that there seemed to be more strange in Scalvoris than there was ordinary. "I'll help you," he said, reaching out and touching her hand, to take it if she wanted and he'd help her while he got up off his heels. If they were going to find her mother in the market, apparently he'd need to lead her. But now unlike before she was trembling from the cold. He had just the thing for that and reaching under his coat he retrieved the wooden chicken leg he'd been given.

He pushed the thing into her hands once she was up off the ground. "This will keep you warm head to toe while we find your mother," Arlo told her, and slowly led her towards the stalls in the market, looking for anyone who might seem to be looking for someone else. "What's your mother's name? What sort of goods does she sell?" he asked, thinking it might help narrow down the possibilities some.

Arlo"Oh, I feel warm!" Joelle said when he put the chicken peg-leg in her hand. "Is it magic?" She sounded awestruck at that thought, which might be a strange thing for her to be in fairness. "It's very clever."

She seemed to be used to being led, her hand rested on his arm in a comfortable way. "You're kind, thank you. My mother?" Joelle nodded her head and stopped walking for a moment. "Her name is Sin'ta and she sells things for divination, fortune telling. Trinkets to bring luck, cards to tell the future." She shrugged, almost apologetically. "Most people don't believe in it, but she's very good. She has the sight, the true sight. I do, too, sometimes, but other times not." Having stopped she seemed to be getting her bearings and she lifted her nose in the air, slightly. She listened and then turned her head towards Arlo. "Is there a leatherworkers stall ahead and at the left hand junction?" There was.

""Oh, I know where we are. The smells are unique, people spend so much time just seeing, it's all they rely on," she directed where they should go. Straight ahead, turn right, three stall over on the left. Through the side of that stall and then.... and then... had the market always been this big? No, probably not.

However, they got to where they were going. The stall was, indeed, a treasure trove of things ~ crystal balls, divination cards traditional to many of the races of Idalos, a number of different packs, runes and dice, herbs and incense. Small rabbit feet, gems and crystals. The woman who ran the stall looked more likely to be Joelle's grandmother or even her great grandmother, but the older woman turned and saw them coming and she did not seem relieved, it didn't look like she'd been worried, but she smiled in pleasure at the sight of the two of them.

"Joelle! I've told you about going out without a coat! You'll freeze. Who is you friend?" Joelle seemed about to answer, but her mother continued talking, causing a smile from the young woman. "Have you been out drumming up business? Is this a customer for us?" Joelle laughed, shaking her head. "I don't know if he believes in any of this sort of thing. Do you?" She asked Arlo and both Joelle and her mother turned to pay attention to his answer.

Off Topic

Since you are effectively separate, I thought I'd just reply as you do individually

"I guess it is," Arlo figured when the girl asked if the chicken leg was magic. "But I don't know any magic myself, or much about it. So I can't really say how it works." It was neither here nor there so far as he was concerned. It worked, and he guessed it could be a lifesaver under the right circumstances. That was what mattered. But of course her mother sold trinkets related to fortune telling. If he was the cynical sort, he could easily think that the young girl was sent out on her own for just that reason. To bring back a sympathetic, paying customer with her.

There was a realistic, logical point to make there. But he didn't. There might be something to what she'd told him about himself, or it might just be a lucky guess. Either way, all that it had cost him was a little time and he'd found the experience interesting anyway. A story to tell, maybe. The market was more crowded than usual in spite of the cold. He guessed that for those who lived their whole lives in Scalvoris, enduring this sort of cold simply became a way of life after a while. "There is," he said when she asked about the leather worker's stall.

"My grandmother was like that," he remarked when she talked about other senses stepping in when one was lacking. "She was deaf. Taught her to rely on sight and even touch more." He wasn't surprised by the look at the stall. And when the girl's apparent mother didn't seem too worried that her child had wandered off, well, there was the more cynical reason behind it, or something else. Maybe a combination in fact since the woman even referenced the notion of drumming up business.

"You appear to have a knack," he said to the girl as much as to the mother, and smiled. "I'm not sure about the future since there's no way of knowing...hasn't happened till it happens after all. But the card?" As for whether he was a customer or not, Arlo hadn't been turned into any kind of true believer, but the experience had been something of a lark at least. He might pick up a souvenir maybe before he went, something to remind him of it later and maybe he'd weave it into a story. "I should probably be going...I wouldn't mind picking up a set of those dice if you've got them for sale," So long as the cost wasn't enough to discourage his interest that was. But if they were a couple nels or less, he'd take a set to take back to camp and show Vega.